Weekend Box Office (January 24 - 26, 2003)

THIS WEEKEND With Americans glued to their television sets over Super Bowl weekend, the box office was relatively calm with the new horror film Darkness Falls topping the charts with $12M, according to final studio figures. The Sony release played wide in 2,837 locations and averaged a decent $4,239 per theater. With no other fright flicks in the marketplace, the PG-13 film offered counterprogramming and delivered a top spot debut. Audiences polled by CinemaScore.com gave Darkness Falls a not-so-encouraging B- grade.

Last weekend's winner, Kangaroo Jack, slipped 30% to second place with $11.5M pushing its ten-day total to $35.1M. The $60M Warner Bros. release should find its way to about $65-70M.

Oscar front-runner Chicago made use of its three big Golden Globes and climbed three spots to third place with $8.2M. Now in the highest chart position of its five-week run, the Hollywood musical has stashed away $40.4M in its bank and averaged a dazzling $13,375 from 616 venues.

Sony's National Security suffered the biggest decline in the top ten dropping 49% to $7.3M raising its total to $26M.

Chart inseparables The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Catch Me If You Can took in weekend takes of $6.6M and $6.5M respectively. The New Line megablockbuster slipped 36% and lifted its cume to $308.8M putting it at number 12 on the list of all-time domestic blockbusters after Star Wars Episode II ($310.4M). Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks hit fell 39% and brought its sum to $145M.

Former number-one Just Married followed in seventh with $6.5M, down 45%, for a $43.4M cume.

Miramax expanded its George Clooney-directed film Confessions of a Dangerous Mind from 5 to 1,769 theaters and grossed $5.8M for a weak eighth-place bow. Averaging only $3,297 per venue, the R-rated story about the secret life of Chuck Barris has grossed $6.3M to date and with its CinemaScore.com grade of C, does not look to last too long.

Jack Nicholson's About Schmidt slipped a scant 5% to $5.4M for a $37.7M total. The Hours rounded out the top ten with an estimated $3.9M from 502 locations for a solid $7,837 average. Cume to date is $13.9M.

Buena Vista reported a strong performance from its Saturday sneak previews of the action-comedy Shanghai Knights. The film attracted an audience that was evenly divided among all demographic groups and 90% of the shows were sold out. A very high 95% described the Jackie Chan-Owen Wilson starrer as "excellent" or "very good." The studio will open the sequel to Shanghai Noon on February 7 in over 2,500 theaters.

The top ten films grossed $73.9M which was down 29% from last year when Black Hawk Down remained at number one with $17M; but up 11% from 2001 when The Wedding Planner debuted on top with $13.5M.


Compared to projections, Darkness Falls opened very close to my $13M forecast while Confessions of a Dangerous Minds debuted a bit below my $8M prediction.

Be sure to check back on Thursday for a complete summary, including projections, for next weekend when The Recruit, Final Destination 2, Biker Boyz, and The Guru all open.

Marketplace: Shop for videos, DVDs, music, books, and posters at discounted prices using search engines

# Title Jan 24 - 26 Jan 17 - 19 % Chg. Theaters Weeks AVG Cumulative Distributor
1 Darkness Falls $ 12,024,917 2,837 1 $ 4,239 $ 12,024,917 Sony
2 Kangaroo Jack 11,548,247 16,580,209 -30.3 2,848 2 4,055 35,112,415 Warner Bros.
3 Chicago 8,238,709 7,602,133 8.4 616 5 13,375 40,386,310 Miramax
4 National Security 7,308,966 14,369,694 -49.1 2,729 2 2,678 26,040,534 Sony
5 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers 6,611,705 10,274,388 -35.6 2,666 6 2,480 308,821,306 New Line
6 Catch Me If You Can 6,501,059 10,696,726 -39.2 2,776 5 2,342 144,962,124 DreamWorks
7 Just Married 6,482,600 11,871,330 -45.4 2,705 3 2,397 43,353,177 Fox
8 Confessions of a Dangerous Mind 5,833,052 76,913 1,769 4 3,297 6,332,676 Miramax
9 About Schmidt 5,382,302 5,669,076 -5.1 1,236 7 4,355 37,745,475 New Line
10 The Hours 3,934,284 4,644,924 -15.3 502 5 7,837 13,868,754 Paramount
11 A Guy Thing 3,363,857 6,988,749 -51.9 2,520 2 1,335 12,300,001 MGM
12 Gangs of New York 2,764,424 3,712,112 -25.5 1,905 6 1,451 65,377,894 Miramax
13 Two Weeks Notice 2,402,271 4,009,157 -40.1 1,858 6 1,293 88,824,947 Warner Bros.
14 My Big Fat Greek Wedding 1,704,430 2,173,330 -21.6 1,143 41 1,491 236,448,697 IFC Films
15 Antwone Fisher 1,670,328 2,776,529 -39.8 970 6 1,722 17,141,521 Fox Searchlight
16 Maid in Manhattan 1,553,854 3,113,850 -50.1 1,433 7 1,084 91,082,447 Sony
17 25th Hour 1,433,215 2,291,590 -37.5 495 6 2,895 9,586,594 Buena Vista
18 Adaptation 1,406,390 1,825,240 -22.9 564 7 2,494 14,252,147 Sony
19 Narc 1,332,607 1,925,304 -30.8 822 6 1,621 8,535,636 Paramount
20 The Pianist 1,247,912 1,263,509 -1.2 308 5 4,052 6,008,691 Focus
Top 5 $ 45,732,544 $ 63,792,347 -28.3
Top 10 73,865,841 92,706,386 -20.3
Top 20 92,745,129 114,701,639 -19.1
Top 10 vs. 2002 92,745,129 124,288,196 -25.4

Last Updated : January 28, 2003 at 12:30AM EST